near the end

After Mario Chiodo’s “Love Surrendering”

Do you see me when you

Are unwell, like I do you,

Your arms around me

Dancing to a floating melody?

Do you see me when the agony of living

Near matches the wooing

Of my deadly, artful touch?

Is this sinful music too much

For you to bear, angel– angel of an angel?

I could make it worse, you know, to the devil

With this false chaste humility–

When did your kind ever plea

For anything not desire-rooted?

Dance with me, for we are cursed

To surrender to at least one thing

Of which we know nothing.

Would you dance with me tonight

Under these diode lights;

Dream with me, turn them

Into warmth of gleaming

Candles, of a promenade:

The violinist’s bow will draw

And we will laugh and dance

Like you never knew you could.

Would you dance with me tonight

Under these chandelier lights

Under these copious ceilings

Your dress flowing like my wings.

Can you feel it, my dear?

The tremor of all the unwell earth?

The collapse, the dignity, the downfall,

The graceful inevitability of it all.

Would you dance with me: it’s not unsimple.

See, the chandelier crystals above

And in your eyes now wink like stars–

They will shatter, and no wounds will scar.

Would you dance with me: the violinist’s strings

With majesty now sing like how heaven sings–

They will snap, the tension too much

Pressure too high from an unyielding touch.

Would you dance with me: the candle flames

Warm your rouged cheeks, lucid dream frame–

They will drip wax onto your dress,

Burn holes into all this excess.

Dance with me... I promise you that I am good,

No harm to the alive; My wings will raise you like a god,

Greater than their... your...mortal greed and pride–

I do not destroy to prove my might.

Let me heal you for a while, angel,

Angel of an angel, help you unforget

Love and death are not so different:

All-consuming...Immortal... Alive...So tell,

So tell: Would you dance with me

If I am sure this love’s survival is a guarantee?

And would you dance with me

... If in all the worlds your death is all I see?